Matt 5: 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
There appears to be an implied quid pro quo (an exchange) in these two verses. It seems to read that if we do what verse 44 tells us to do, it will result in verse 45. In other words, if we love our enemies, and bless them that curse us, we may become the children of our Father. However, we know that’s not true. We cannot make ourselves children of our Father. We are made children of our Father by God Himself when we choose to accept Christ’s work at the cross. Jesus did the work for us.
Upon closer inspection of the verse, I found that the word “that” in verse 45 is “hopos” in the Greek, which actually means “because”. Jesus is not telling us how to become children of our Father. He’s teaching us who we are (children of our Father), and the character that comes with our position (people who love their enemies and even those who curse us).
“Because” of who we are, we get to act a certain way; we get to love our enemies and bless those that curse us.